Instructions:You are trying to take over 50% of the planets. The computer is trying to do the same.There are 4 planet sizes. The largest planet has a defense of 50, then 40 for the next smallest, then 30 and 20 for the smallest. Ships have an attack and defense of 10. Ships are automatically built at your planets. The more planets you have, the more ships you can support. Also having more planets increases the rate at which you build them.

Your planets are red, The computer is blue and gray are neutral.

If you left click on one of your planets it will be selected. If you then left click on any other planet all your ships will be sent to that planet. If the new planet is already yours the ships will reinforce it. If it is neutral or the computer's then you will attack it. If you click the middle button instead, then only half your ships will be sent.

If you drag select a bunch of planets then all your planets in the rectangle will be selected.

If you right click all your planets will be selected.

If you click on empty space all planets will be deselected.

I am still working on this, but any thoughts are welcome.

TODO: - is too easy so will increase the number of planets needed to win - make easy and hard options - improve ship generation

perhaps it might be fun to have different planets generate different ships, i.e. small planets generate weak ships, big plannets strong ships. also a maximum range for the ships would force the player to progress through the planets. currently you can send all your ships from one side to the other with no penalty.

currently you can send all your ships from one side to the other with no penalty.

Slowing the speed ships travel would greatly improve that problem, possibly making their speed inversely proportional to the distance they are traveling - thereby making planet hopping the typical strategy.

Also I think allowing multiple concurrent attacks would add a little more depth to the game.

I'm in agreement with this being a little, easy, and some of the controls seeming unresponsive/failing to send ships. Needs a bit of work.

Also, to further continue the string of "game inspiration", I believe that flash game you linked took it's concept from an earlier game on kongregate (which, frankly, probably took it's idea from some other indie game somewhere), called Nano War (http://www.kongregate.com/games/badben/nano-war).

It might be worth taking a look at how this game set up it's mechanics, as it's a slower paced, but still very intense game (I rather liked it, anyway). Having some indication of the strength of the neutral territory you're attacking would be good, and I definitely think complete dominance should be the condition for victory, as it's much more satisfying.

Perhaps, also, middle click for send all, and left click for sending half. Maybe this is just what I'm used to, but I thought it worked well. Although with the fast pace ship sending, maybe the 100% send is more practically useful. So perhaps disregard that. Or maybe use a ctrl-key modifier instead of a middle click, I'm not that fond of middle click as a thing I have to click rapidly/often. I'm not sure really though.

Good luck, hope to see this emerge into one of my favorites (I really enjoy these styles of games, for some reason)

would be great to introduce a maximum flight distance (indicated by a circle maybe), so you have to move a bit more strategic. so you can make levels where certain planets are only reachable from one neighboring planet, so you would have a fight for the transfer planet. also the build rate should depend on the planet size. if combined you could make a some interesting strategic challenges.

Edit: And change the goal to conquer all worlds. Let the enemy ships add to the defence af a planet.

I changed it so you now have to take over all the planets. The ships also move slower.

Fixed the ArrayIndexoutOfBoundsException and the ship counting problem.

It is still too easy. I will see if I can put a range limit. I think I will put an easy mode and a hard mode. This can remain as easy and hard will improve the computer in a couple of areas and see how that goes.

Quick suggestion: if you're having issues making hard mode hard (maybe you have enough good ideas, I don't know), just "cheat" a little and make the cpu start out with more planets. I messed up the beginning of my last game (hard mode), because I managed to send, on three consecutive attempts, just not enough ships to take over a planet (due to me sending them "out of sync" and just not waiting long enough). By the time I started capturing planets, the cpu had 5 or 6 planets already, while I just had 3. I found it a healthy challenge trying to beat the computer then, but could still overcome it.

Also, there's a greater feeling of satisfaction if you beat an opponent who actually has more forces than you, as you just feel like you're all that much smarter.

Now the you are limited in the amount of ships that you can send. The maximum number of ships you can send is half that are orbiting each planet. So if you have 2 planets selected with 5 on the first and 8 on the second and you send them to attack a planet, the first will send 3 and the second will send 4.

If you select the hard setting, the computer will start with 4 planets and will make decisions a lot quicker.

Also note that each time you play, the map is randomly generated.(It always has been)

I have tried fixing the problems with clicking sometimes not working, but it is difficult to pin down the solution.

There was kind of a bug with the way I moved ships around. They would belong to their source until the reached their destination. So if the source planet was attacked those ships would take damage. I separate moving ships from the planets now until they reach their destination. This also prevents you from getting ships in flight to go to a new destination before reaching the old one.

- I dunno about the send limitation, seems you just have to wait longer to make a move... a bit boring- also it seems the limitation does not apply to the enemy ships, which is just unfair- maybe use the second mouse button: left click - send half your ships (to leave the planet protected), right click - send all (oops, just reread your original post )- I _really_ would like to see distance limitation, so you have to conquer with a strategy- and I still vote for ship production rate dependent of the planet size- I would skip the maximum ship limit- add some special planets like o "Industrial" - if conquered doubles the ship production of nearby planets o "Fortress" - if conquered, every ship in orbit has double defence value o "Thinktank" - if conquered, your ships range is doubled (due hi-tech equipment from the scientists ) o etc.- make the enemy a bit smarter (like conquering your planets with the lowest defence first)

After 4K suggestions:

- polish- create more chalenging maps by hand- make it 4 player online playable

Edit: some more thought

- ship production rate is too high once many planets are conquered, you end up furiously clicking around without any strategy (combined with the occasional missed clicks it's no fun...) - it seems to be random in which orbit the ships appear once your ship limit is reached, skipping the maximum limit and using planet size based production rate would imo fix this...

- ship production rate is too high once many planets are conquered, you end up furiously clicking around without any strategy (combined with the occasional missed clicks it's no fun...) - it seems to be random in which orbit the ships appear once your ship limit is reached, skipping the maximum limit and using planet size based production rate would imo fix this...

i like the idea of limiting the fleet per click but:-keep the outgoing planet selected-->multiple clicks multiple fleets; this is IMO the best way to distribute an overpopulated planet-fix the missed clicks issue

what about a mother planet? you have to conquer all moons (small planets around the mother planet) to land on the planet and win. Moons don't produce ships very fast but the mother planet does.

A simple green circle around each selected planet would be sufficient. No space left? This is also a good one. So if you send 20 ships to a planet that supports 3 you lose the rest.

It's just the way I programmed it. I go through all the planets making decisions and drawing them all at once, also checking for mouse clicks and everything else. So to show range would be a challenge structurally. Although now that I think of it I could move the mouse click and that might fix the click not registering problem.

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean. I would like the planets to produce ships steadily with no limit at all, just let the production speed depend on the size of the planet.

What did you understand or what do you have in mind?

I was thinking each planet can only support a certain amount of ships in orbit. If you go past that you lose the rest that try to go there. If I did this I would go back to letting you move all your ships instead of limiting you to half.

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